Evidence of meeting #5 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was voting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON
You did mention me in the form of referring to manipulation.
What the returning officer did in the constituency I represent was in the context of all-party meetings. So there was participation from all the parties at that time. She was very careful about that.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Okay, a different story. Thank you.
Mr. Mayrand, you mention a suggestion for the future on page 40 of your report. You say that you could make better use of election workers in voting sites. I do have some reservations when you say: "...voters could then vote at any polling station within the site". I have no objection to your identifying voters and allowing them to vote, except that it must be possible to record the vote for statistical purposes by polling division.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
So we are on the same wavelength here.
On page 44, you talk about the voter identification card. There is reference to the fact that it could be considered one of the authorized pieces of ID. I have many reservations about that, and I will tell you why.
From the very beginning, I have had problems with the famous permanent list, because I do not think it is accurate enough. It is not uncommon to find cases in ridings where, according to the final list, there are four occupants in a one-bedroom apartment. I know that there could be bunk beds, but at some point, it gets difficult to fit all these people in. With door-to-door enumeration, we find that people are not in these apartments 100% of the time. There can also be an issue with private residences. I have the list of the neighbours on my street, and I know that some of them have been gone for five or six years or have died. And yet they are still on the list. If people are allowed to use the voter information card, I think we are opening the door to fraud. I would ask you to be very cautious in this regard.
On page 38 of your report, you talk about the problem getting our telephones connected quickly or reasonably quickly. We have experienced this problem as well. You say that you are currently looking a new telecommunications technologies. I would ask you to keep us informed of what you find out, because this could be very helpful to us as well.
12:55 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
I would be happy to share that with you.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
I very much appreciated your being here and your openness to our suggestions and comments. We took a major step forward during the last election. I said at the beginning that your report reflects what actually happened in the last election, and I appreciate that very much. Thank you.
12:55 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Mr. Chair, may I add something about the voter identification card, because I would not want to leave the wrong impression. I know that the accuracy of the list is of concern to a number of people.
I would just like to make two points. First, the list covers 93% of voters. Of the 23 million cards that were sent out, fewer than 1% were returned. I think we must take this into account.
12:55 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Yes.
Second, what is suggested in the report or what I suggest is not that the voter information card be the only ID accepted, but that it be one of the pieces of ID accepted. The difficulty we have with seniors, students, aboriginals and other groups is that we have often done a targeted revision and sent them out a card. They show it in order to vote, and often they have no other documentation to prove their address. So is one piece of ID, together with another duly authorized—
12:55 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Yes, absolutely.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
With permission of our guests, we're going to take just a couple more questions. We had a little trouble with translation earlier and it ate some of our time.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Mayrand, like Mr. Proulx, my questions are about the accuracy of the electoral list. What explanation can there be for the fact that the federal electoral list from the last election contained 250,000 more entries than the Quebec list? You said that 1% of the cards were returned. There must have been many duplicates.
12:55 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
First of all, the criteria for getting on the electoral list are not the same. People move around a lot. People are required to have lived at the same address for six months in order to be registered on the Quebec list. That is not true in the case of the federal list. The federal list includes all the residents, regardless of whether or not they have lived at their current address for six months or not. There are all sorts of factors of this type that come into play and that give rise to some variations, but I must say that Quebec probably has the most accurate voters' list.
12:55 p.m.
Bloc
12:55 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Yes. There is a great deal of mobility. Four million people in our population change status every year. So 250,000 over a period of a few months is not a very high number.
12:55 p.m.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
To what extent are the returning officers obliged to respect the recommendations made about the people working during an election?
I am in a fairly good position to talk about this matter because my riding, for the most part, is rural. More than 30 small towns are located in my riding. When we make recommendations about the people working during elections, we specify that such and such a person should be in such and such a town. As far as these people are concerned, it's a matter of mobility. In some poling stations the returning officer does not respect the recommendation made by the candidate. So a worker from one town could find out, at the last minute, that he is going to have to travel some distance in order to get to another town. That causes problems with respect to transportation logistics. Someone who is supposed to be working the next morning in a small town may be asked to help out in another town. It's almost as if there is no accommodation or thought given to these last-minute situations for election officials in the rural areas. I think that it would perhaps be wise to point this out to the returning officers and to really respect the recommendations, which pertain not only to an individual's competence but also place of residence.
1 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Returning officers are encouraged to consider these aspects. Obviously, all kinds of situations can crop up, sometimes people back out or at the last minute there is a staff shortage, meaning that workers have to be re-assigned. Regardless of what the case may be, we will remind the returning officer to consider, to the extent possible, the suggestions made by the candidates.
1 p.m.
Conservative
1 p.m.
Conservative
Guy Lauzon Conservative Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON
You said, I believe, that only 1% of the voter information cards were sent back.
1 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Two percent of the cards, representing 285,000 out of 23 million.
1 p.m.
Conservative